Welford Park is a country house and estate in the village of Welford

Welford, Berkshire

Welford is a hamlet and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, in the valley of the River Lambourn north-west of the town of Newbury. The parish is within West Berkshire unitary authority....

, near the town of Newbury

Newbury, Berkshire

Newbury is a civil parish and the principal town in the west of the county of Berkshire in England. It is situated on the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal, and has a town centre containing many 17th century buildings. Newbury is best known for its racecourse and the adjoining former USAF...

 in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

. Whilst of some historical significance, the estate is perhaps best known for its displays of Snowdrop

Snowdrop

Galanthus is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous herbaceous plants in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae...

s in early Spring.

The church of Welford St Gregory, one of only two existing round-tower church

Round-tower church

Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, almost solely in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, 6 in Essex, 3 in Sussex and 2 each in Cambridgeshire and Berkshire. There is evidence of about twenty round-tower...

es in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, is located adjacent to the house. The various chalk stream

Chalk stream

Chalk streams have characteristics which set them apart from watercourses associated with other rock types.Aside from those with an interest in the geological and ecological disciplines, the term chalk stream is most widely used among a small group of fly fishermen ,...

s that make up the River Lambourn

River Lambourn

The River Lambourn is a chalk stream in the English county of Berkshire. It rises in the Berkshire Downs near its namesake village of Lambourn and is a tributary of the River Kennet, which is itself a tributary of the River Thames.-Perennial River:...

 flow through the grounds.

History

Welford Park is built on the site of a monastic grange that belonged to Abingdon Abbey

Abingdon Abbey

Abingdon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery also known as St Mary's Abbey located in Abingdon, historically in the county of Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, England.-History:...

 from Anglo-Saxon times

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

. After the dissolution of the monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

, King Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 used the site for a hunting lodge. Later it was granted to Sir Thomas Parry

Thomas Parry (Comptroller of the Household)

Sir Thomas Parry was a Comptroller of the Household to the English Queen Elizabeth I.He was knighted by Elizabeth at her accession in 1558, and held the offices of royal steward, Cofferer, Privy Counselor, Comptroller of the Household , Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries , Member of...

, Comptroller of the Household

Comptroller of the Household

The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the English royal household, currently the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department, and often a cabinet member. He was an ex officio member of the Board of Green Cloth, until that body was abolished in the reform of the local...

 by Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

. It was his main residence, but his son

Thomas Parry (ambassador)

Sir Thomas Parry was an English politician and diplomat during the Tudor period.Thomas Parry was the son of Sir Thomas Parry Senior of Welford Park in Berkshire, the Controller of the Royal Household, by his wife, Anne, the daughter of Sir William Reade of Boarstall in Buckinghamshire.He first...

 moved the family to Hamstead Marshall

Hamstead Marshall

Hamstead Marshall is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. Although the village name is spelt Hamstead Marshall, the alternative Hampstead Marshall was quite commonly used in the past, and remains the official name of the civil parish...

. Welford was then used as a dower house

Dower house

On an estate, a dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the estate-owner. The widow, often known as the "dowager" usually moves into the dower house from the larger family house on the death of her husband if the heir is married, and upon his marriage if he...

 for his mother, who is buried in the adjoining church.

The existing house dates from about 1652 and was built for Richard Jones

Richard Jones

-Artists and entertainers:* F. Richard Jones , American filmmaker* Dick Clair , born Richard Jones, American producer, actor and TV writer* Richard Jones , British bass guitarist...

, the grandson of Sir Francis Jones, Lord Mayor of London

Lord Mayor of London

The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

 in 1620, who had purchased the property in 1618. The house was remodelled by the architect Thomas Archer

Thomas Archer

Thomas Archer was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Archer was born at Umberslade Hall in Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire, the youngest son of Thomas Archer, a country gentleman, Parliamentary...

 about 1700, which resulted in an additional storey and a facade decorated with ionic columns

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

. The interior was again altered in 1840.

The house remains in the ownership of James Puxley, a local landowner and former High Sheriff of Berkshire

High Sheriff of Berkshire

The High Sheriff of Berkshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'....

, who is a distant relative of the Jones family.

Snowdrops

Welford Park is a private residence, and for most of the year neither it nor its grounds are open to the public. However in a tradition that is now over 50 years old, the grounds are opened to enable visitors to view the year's bloom of Snowdrop

Snowdrop

Galanthus is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous herbaceous plants in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae...

s and, to a lesser extent, Aconite

Aconite

Aconite may refer to:*Aconitum, a plant genus containing the monkshoods*Aconitine, "the queen of poisons", a toxin derived from some of the Aconitum genus plants*Winter aconite, a plant in the genus Eranthis...

s. The flowers thrive on the chalky soil

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

, forming a white carpet across the estate's riverside beech woodland

Beech

Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

.

The actual dates of opening vary from year to year, depending on the state of the blooms. In recent years, the park has been opened on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays throughout the month of February. As one of the first signs of the end of winter, Welford's snowdrops are generally well covered by the local, and sometimes national, press, and attract large crowds of visitors. The nearby site of Welford Park station

Welford Park railway station

Welford Park railway station was a railway station in Welford, Berkshire, UK, on the Lambourn Valley Railway.- History :The station opened on 2 April 1898...

 on the former Lambourn Valley Railway is used as a car park for these visitors.

External links

• Welford Park's own web site, with information on the snowdrop openings.